The Sims 3

I wasn’t planning on buying the Sims 3 anytime soon since I was content with 2 but I saw 5 commericials last night and I finally broke down and decided to try it. By try it, I mean pay 50 bucks to buy it.

Negative aspects of the game:

UPDATE! Sims creation: I lied about character creation, I did not explore it enough. You can customize every detail. Yay!

Time: Also, okay I know a lot of people had problems with The Sims, The Sims 2 and the Time aspect. Everyone used to complain that some things like going to the bathroom took forever and you had to do them constantly, leaving little time to do much else. Well, things are a little different now. They eat more quickly, they shower and use the bathroom at about the same time but much less often. That is all well in good but here are the kickers! You have to wait forever for them to sleep! Obviously that wouldn’t be a big deal if you were taking care of a family of Sims but if you start off by playing one Sim, it is incredibly boring. I’m warning you now. Ohhh that isn’t even all! Even worse, (but had the potential to be cool) is that you go to work with them. You don’t see what they are doing though, you are standing outside telling them what to do. This also takes an eternity! I sat there twiddling my thumbs, looking at Sim hospital for potentially almost 15 minutes waiting for them to get done work.The worst part is, and I actually thought the game was broken because this happened but the “fast forward” barely made time go by more quickly. They force you to stick with consistent time, perhaps for better time management? Either way it can get frustrating.

Objects: If you are looking for like 2 dozen sets of couches, tables, etc when you get this game think again. It comes with all the necessary furniture and stuff but not a lot of options. I assume they are doing this to get you to buy expansions *yippee* and also use their online store.

Online store: Sort of useful, though right now they barely have any content that you can buy.

Clothing: My last disappointment is that there are no clothing stores in your town. You can just automatically change your clothing by going to your dresser. Everything in your inventory will be there. Which, yeah that is easier but I actually enjoyed shopping for clothes.

Positive aspects of the game:

Personality: I love the fact that you can give them 5 different aspects of personality. You can use your personality special powers in a conversation. It gives you extra things to do or say.

Randomization of objects, this is kind of cool because it’ll show you different colors and patterns with the objects so you usually get something unique.

The town/jobs: I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that you have total control over the town you live in. You can zoom out and click where you want to go. You actually need to go grocery shopping this time around, which is neat. Even more cool though is that you can take classes and increase skills, or you can get a part-time job at one of the companies. You actually get to choose what job you want, for the most part.

The graphics are prettier, and smoother. It can take some getting used to the controls, I actually changed some settings just because I’m picky.

Dialogue: You have a lot more interesting dialogue with other Sims. You can see what they think about you and you can learn things about the other Sim. For example if your girl want to get married and have a family you have to make sure your partner is interested in those things. Also, you have to work harder to get someone to fall for you. I like that more, it’s a challenge.

Cooking: You can prepare interesting meals, for example if you have eggs and apples you can make apple pancakes. There are all sorts of recipes you can learn. I would tell you about dinner but unfortunately my Sim is a trauma surgeon and works 10pm-3:00am so she sleeps through dinner.

Real world experiences: Another cool but challenging thing! You can be on call, I literally worked 10pm-3:00am came home and slept for 5 hours and got called into work.

Alright that is mostly what I have from the few hours I played it but overall it isn’t a bad game. It can be fun if you get used to it. I like how they tried to add more real life situations into the mix.

If you’re a die hard Sims or Sims 2 fan I’m sure you’ll enjoy it, it’ll just take some getting used to. I would recommend it as an addictive, time waster to anyone else!